


Nostalgia

by OkguyWritesThings (Realitymess)



Series: damn getting stuck in a VR game kinda sucks, huh? [1]
Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Alternate Universe - SCP Foundation, Body Horror, Gen, Horror, It Gets Worse, Pre-main story, Psychological Horror, based off a different persons au!, ill tag them or something when they post it, it just keeps getting worse hahhaha, slight - Freeform, that will be more obvious later, then it gets worse, vr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:08:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24224827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Realitymess/pseuds/OkguyWritesThings
Summary: y'know, Benrey didn't have his passport either.Once.
Series: damn getting stuck in a VR game kinda sucks, huh? [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748506
Comments: 23
Kudos: 100





	Nostalgia

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Black Mesa Containment Breach](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24240736) by [AjumpingSpider](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AjumpingSpider/pseuds/AjumpingSpider). 



> Now you know where I got the inspiration from! Please check out Ajumpingspider, they're currently writing the main story for this AU!!!! I'm just making the angsty backstory lnasdkjlaisundjn
> 
> but seriously, go check em out!!!

If you had asked Barney what he hated the most, he would say he hated anything _new_.

He struggled up the stairs of his apartment block, regretting his choice to take all of his groceries in one trip. “ _But you live so high up!_ ” Barney recalled the pep talk he had with himself before this decision. “ _You won’t have to tire yourself out! Just give yourself a break, bro!_ ”

God, sometimes he could be a _dick_.

Stumbling over to his apartment door, he gritted his teeth as the key stuck in the lock for a moment, forcing him to twist his wrist in a _very_ uncomfortable position. As soon as the lock clicked open, his door opened with a bang, Barney almost falling from his weight support suddenly leaving him.

Ah well. At least he got in without breaking the eggs.

His apartment, in the nicest way possible, was messy as _hell_ . Messy in the way that it was organized. Like every cupboard in the kitchen was ‘the tupperware cupboard’. Laundry was piled on the floor in his bedroom, but it was a _nicer_ pile all the same, and Barney would swear up and down that the only reason his laundry was like that was because he didn’t have a basket to put it in. Which was a lie, of course, but a tame one at that. The curtain covering the window in the living area was closed at the moment, but dust particles swam in the stray ray of light from the setting sun outside. In fact, the one _truly_ clean and organised place in Barney’s apartment was the couch and everything to do with it, which he promptly plopped down onto, firing up his second-hand PS3.

Barney winced as the fan in the little gaming system started to roar, doing it’s absolute best to stop the machine from overheating. He _really_ needed to get a replacement, maybe even a PS4… but he’s had that PS3 for _so long_ , and he’d have to buy all of his games again, and make some PS plus ultra account or _whatever_.

Besides, this PS3 in particular has… sentimental value.

What can he say? He just doesn’t like anything new.

“Alright, let’s see what we’ve got here.” Barney muttered, heading back to the kitchen to grab what he had _really_ gone outside for.

According to the admittedly creepy gamestop employee he talked to, this was supposed to be some VR port for Half-Life _one_ , a weird game to revamp into VR considering it came out in _1998_ . Barney supposed that either some developer out there felt _really_ sentimental, or Valve was trying to make a quick cash grab during the big VR craze. _And_ a PS3 could run it no problem, a gaming system that’s _never_ had any sort of VR games made for it?

“Waaaaay too good to be true!” He joked with a friend of his, Dave (or something sounding like that,) over the phone as the game downloaded. “But you know I’m a huge fucking sucker for _anything_ Valve makes, so what can you do?”

“Dude, you _do_ realise that’s how you get curses and stuff, right?” Dave chuckled.

“What, finding a game that I’ve never heard of? Oh nooooo, I’m gonna get trapped in the TV screeeeen, what a tragedy, I’m gonna have to miss my sucky college finals, and I’ll never have to work at my shitty job ever agaaaaaain.” Barney laughed softly as he poured some chips into a bowl.

“I’m just _saying_ bro, I’m gonna be reading shitty reddit creepypastas tomorrow, and _your name’s_ gonna be in one of them.”

“Pfft, come on. I’ll be _fine_. It’s just a game-”

benrey 

He spun around, eyes scanning the apartment, phone held limply in his hand. Maybe he was just on edge from his struggle with the stairs, but Barney could _swear_ he heard someone… some _thing_ , call his name. In his apartment. His apartment that he was _alone_ in. And, thinking back on it, it wasn’t even his name. Just… something _similar_.

“Barney, you there?” Dave’s voice rang out faintly from his phone’s speaker, snapping Barney out of his startled trance.

“Yeah, yeah I’m here.” He responded, nerves touching his voice ever so slightly. “I just… just thought… y’know what? Nevermind. Pretty sure the game’s done downloading. See you later, bro?”

“Alright, but I swear to fuck if I see some SCP shit about this later I’m going to _lose my_ -”

“ _Bye_ , you fuckin’ nerd.” 

Barney hung up with a sigh, casually sitting back down on the couch as he pulled up the game, grabbing his equally-as-old VR headset, some clunky first gen Oculus Rift sort of deal. He hummed along to the signature opening notes as he slipped on the headset, scrunching up his face to adjust and gripping his controllers.

  
  
  


He used to have this friend as a kid, some guy named Gordon. There… There was this big park next to their big ass school, and for some reason beneath the thin layer of sand it was just… dirt, and whenever it rained there’d be this disgusting mess of sand and mud and your pants and shirt would be stained for _weeks_ if you played in it. But the thing about that mud and sand was that, when it hardened, it’d be _perfect_ for building shit with. And Barney remembered that he _loved_ playing in it, but alllll the other kids found it gross as hell, so he’d usually be alone.

And one day, when he was just dicking around in the park, this kid with long hair pulled back into a tangled fucking mess you could _guess_ to be a ponytail came up to him and just… stood there for a minute before asking something along the lines of…

“What are you doing?”

And Barney, bare knees suctioned deep into the mud-sand, shyly replied with “Uhhhhh… playing?” Y’know, cause that was before he was an asshole.

“Oh, cool!” Said as ‘Kewl’. “My name’s Gordon. Can I build with you?”

“... Sure.”

And there they were, two kids playing in the mud and sand, building little castles and having the fucking time of their _lives_. Gordon, his first and pretty much only childhood friend, just hanging out with him in the mud and sand, talking about… oh god Barney didn’t fucking know, probably power rangers, or TMNT. Shit like that.

Barney recalled their time together surprisingly vividly, probably because (in Barney’s opinion, at least,) his time with Gordon was the only part of his childhood _worth_ remembering. Dad outta the picture, mom distant, no real connections made there, huh?

Holy shit. Now that he thought back on it, he _did_ have an edgy backstory, didn’t he?

Barney snickered into his shitty dollar store mic that, through some unknowable miracle, he had managed to hook up to his headset. Yeah it made his voice sound grainy as all _hell_ , but what can you really hope for on minimum wage?

_“God, where_ is _Gordon right now?_ ” He asked himself, letting the memories wash over him as various textures loaded in front of him. (Watching things load out in VR always gave him a headache, and this was no different.) Gordon, Barney guessed, was probably off in some big ass city, sitting at some desk, programming shit. He probably _wishes_ he had Barney’s life of customer service and fast food. Shit, that’s why he bought this VR port in the first place.

Another memory, this time as teens. Sometime around grade eight, Barney gets his hands on a copy of the New and Exciting Half-Life, ready and downloaded on the PS3 he got for his 13th birthday. He calls Gordon over, orders pizza or something, and they have a blast just dicking around with the settings and npcs. It’s a good time, nothing special.

Gordon comes back about a week later looking like he just pushed their asshole of a science teacher into _oblivion_ , and Barney asks him.

“Jeeze dude, you look fucking happy. What’s up?”

“I got it dude! I got the mod!” And he holds up this USB stick, shaking from excitement.

Then Barney realises. “DUDE NO WAY! Where’d you get it from Gordo? Who’s your fucking _dealer_ , dude?” 

(Heh, Gordo. Gordo was a nice little nickname he had just started calling him at some point. Gordon had never complained, so Barney didn’t stop.)

“Shhhh dude, not so loud, they’re gonna think we’re giving people drugs or some shit and I can’t let you get me in trouble _again_.” Gordon snickered, pushing away from Barney for a moment before moving on to class.

“Come ooooon bro, it wasn’t a big deal-”

“You threw a rock at the _principal_ , dude. That’s a big deal!”

“And he _never found out_ , so it’s fine!”

  
  


The mod was _fantastic_. 

Sure, it was simple. Just a little ‘god powers’ kind of situation, a tiny bit of no clipping here, a dash of infinite damage punches there, but god _damn_ if it wasn’t fun. Messing around with all the npcs, finding every little secret, no clipping right out of the map whenever it got repetitive. Barney remembered wanting that night to last _forever_ , just him and Gordon, fucking with some old game and eating popcorn on the ratty old couch in the basement.

Then he moved away. Leaving Barney all alone in the hell that was highschool.

Fucking asshole…

_… God, he missed Gordon._

  
  
  


It was exactly like he remembered it.

He slowly moved his head side to side, getting used to the weird, shaky feeling of looking around in VR and taking in the _immense_ wave of nostalgia. Whoever had made this VR port was absolutely dedicated to _perfecting_ the textures, updating NPC models, _everything_ . This was _perfect_.

Barney gently moved his character forward, giggling at the sudden glide forward. Had to keep _some_ old game qualities, right? Eagerly striding through the halls, passing through the break room and waving to the scientists, who paid him little mind past a pre-programmed ‘Shouldn’t you get a move on?’, he cackled roughly at the memories that came back to him, punching people here and there for fun until he reached the locker room.

Huh. Weirdly empty. Wasn’t there supposed to be a couple of NPCs in here?

Eh, who cares? 

Footstep sounds echoed through the locker room, eerily devoid of background music as he made his way to the bathroom, eager to check if the mirrors worked in this port or not. Barney didn’t have any high hopes, so when the mirror _did_ show a reflection he barked a laugh in pleasant surprise. The guard model’s mouth did a crude imitation, jaw stretching out as the grainy sound of the mic played, only making Barney laugh harder.

Hold on, _guard model_ ? If this port was true to the game, shouldn’t he be playing as Gordon Freeman? (Oh, he used to tease Gordo about that allllll the time.) It was… _odd_ , certainly, but nothing to worry about, right? Probably just had trouble configuring the Freeman model to work in VR. Still, Barney’s brow furrowed, a dull migraine starting to brew in the back of his mind.

(He didn’t notice, but the model’s brow furrowed with him.)

Barney shook off the weird feelings he was getting, heading out of the bathroom and onwards to the HEV suit, hoping to progress to the resonance cascade and truly start the game. As before, syncing back up with his memory of playing this game, there was a lone HEV suit waiting to be used. He took a deep breath, reached out to the suit…

“Hey!”

He yelped and spun around, eyes meeting some scientist NPC staring down at him from a small balcony. 

“Shit, that scared the _hell_ out of me,” He spoke, catching his breath. “What is this, some VHS styled horror game?”  
  


“What in the _world_ are you talking about, Benrey?” The scientist shook his head, only shaking Barney up more. “You think our jobs here are some sort of _game_?”

“That… that’s not my name.” He responded, muttering his words close to his mic.

“... Look, I _know_ you all get bored just standing by the doors all day, but that is still no reason to think you can just… _waltz in there_ , and do what we do! The research we do here at Black Mesa is too important, Benrey! Surely _you_ of all people realize that?”

Now Barney was just confused. Obviously his voice had some impact… was there some sort of _AI_ in this fucking game? This relatively shitty VR port that couldn’t even be bothered to use the model for the main character? Unless… 

Of course! This is a demo!

Oh yeah, Barney had it all figured out. No _wonder_ he never heard of it before, this was a trial for a voice recognition AI in VR! It must have been actual _hell_ to get a copy of this into that tiny gamestop near his apartment block…

He let out an exaggerated sigh, deciding to ‘play along’ with the script of the game. “Alright, alright, I _did_ get a little antsy. Can you blame me?”

“If you actually went through with it, _YES_!”

“Jeeze, ok,” He winced. “I’ll uh, I’ll head back to my post then?”

“Yes. You will.” The scientist glared at him for a moment longer, before returning to wherever the NPC was supposed to be. Barney released a breath he didn’t know he was holding as soon as he was gone, leaning forward on his knees in stunned silence. God, his headache did _not_ help the odd feeling he was starting to get from playing.

But, why stop here? It’s a trial after all, it’s gotta end at some point?

He took a moment to compose himself, giving a short pep talk to prepare for whatever roleplay he was going to have to do to progress. Barney always did have a pretty flat tone, but surely you didn’t need _that_ much emotion to get an AI to respond?

  
  
  


Footsteps echoed through the hallways of the Black Mesa Labs as Barney made his way to his ‘station’ as a ‘guard’. He couldn’t help but notice occasional stares from scientists as he trudged onwards, offering a small wave in response just in case of AI interaction. Sure, he was still having _fun_ , but his eyes were starting to strain from the bright graphics, and the disorienting way he slid across the ground brought forth an increasing feeling of motion sickness. It was high time he logged off, but Barney just had to see…

Wait.

Did he just stumble on something?

Barney slowly looked behind him, staring down at his legs mid walk-cycle. Or it _would_ have been mid walk-cycle, if it didn’t feel like he had suddenly walked forward a few minutes ago, almost making him faceplant into his TV screen. Pushing forward on the controllers, which Barney did quite aggressively, reportedly did nothing. God damnit, did he start dissociating or something? And if the game fucking _froze_ right now-

He shakily lifted a leg, returning to his original stance. Two feet on the carpet in his apartment. Two feet on the ground. Solid. Ground. Barney groaned a few choice words under his breath as the controllers started to move him forward again. Gordon would probably tease him to hell and back about this. Or would he be as freaked out as he was? It’d been so fucking long since he’d _seen_ the guy, Barney wondered if Gordo wound even recognize-

“Oh, Benrey! Finally. Thought you finally got lost in this place for _good_ .” The guard near the elevator waved to him, eyes oddly obscured by his helmet ( _why would that stand out?_ Barney asked himself). “Ready to start your shift or what?”

“What?”

The guard shifted in place. “I _said_ , are you r-”

“No, no I heard you, sorry, just not… used to that.” Barney stammered, quickly moving into place. The guard’s head followed his movements.

“Used to what?”

“Nothing! It’s, it’s nothing. Really.”

The ensuing awkward silence was broken by Barney’s nervous shuffling, little sounds of annoyance coming from him as he constantly adjusted his stance. There… there was this weird pressure on his back, like he _was_ leaning on a wall instead of standing in place in his apartment, waiting for something to happen. The guard NPC in front of him cocked his head to the side, but made no move to ask him what the hell he was doing. He felt dizzy, slightly _sick_ in fact. Barney couldn’t remember a time when his motion sickness got this bad, and just standing in place was not helping. Besides, he’d been playing for at least a couple hours by now, if he wanted his sleep schedule to even _exist_ , he should probably log off. He pulled up the menu and reached up for the headset.

He… reached up… for his _headset_.

Right?

A soft “Huh?” escaped him as he slowly grabbed at his face, trying to find his VR headset. It could have fallen off or something, his headset’s done that before, but he’s still in the fucking game! True to his thoughts, Barney looked up to see the same mint tinted walls, the same fluorescent lights, the same guard NPC staring down at him with a blank but concerned expression. Barney started to mutter anxious nonsense under his breath as he held his head in his hands, slowly backing up, hoping to _god_ that he’d trip over his couch and snap out of it.

His back shoved against the _wall_ behind him.

Now Barney was hyperventilating, repeating a small impromptu mantra of ‘Huh? What? This isn’t… What?’ as the familiar environment of his apartment vanished before him. His couch was not there, his TV was not there, _nothing_ he had known and loved and taken care of for the past year was fucking _there_. He felt bile start to build up in his throat, panic taking over his senses.

A voice, the guard NPC asking him if he’s ok without using his actual name, walking slowly towards him. Barney’s voice, still grainy from the fucking mic he was using, (was that permanent? Would he sound like this forever?) was whimpering as the guard reached out to him, reached out an arm, _touching_ him, _grabbing his shoulder_ -

He looked up, eyes meeting the guards face.

  
  


The guard had no eyes.

  
  


Barney screamed.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh boy!!!! First fic in a series!!  
> as said in the tags, this is part of an SCP au, and I'll get into that later, but this is the first case of said SCP abducting someone!!! (coughcoughit'sbenreycoughcough)  
> Being trapped in a VR game sounds terrifying! so I wrote it, and it is! You're welcome


End file.
